Sunday, August 16, 2015

Mediterranian refugees - world populations shifts in response to despair

“The dead were found in the hold,” said Cmdr. Massimo Tozzi, speaking from the (Italian) navy ship Cigala Fulgosi while the rescue was still ongoing. Asked by RaiNews24 how the migrants died, Tozzi said “it appears to be from inhaling exhaust fumes.”Untold many tens of thousands of international refugees are willing to die in transit, rather than become victims of the carnage and corruption in their place of origin. It's a growing international world crises. Nearly every country in the world is facing a refugee crises. As a result, civilizations are becoming diverse, regardless of how this tsunami is growing. In fact, refugees are finding ghetto communities and humanitarian camps where they can barely survive, in response to the carnage of their homeland, caused by war, violence and corruption. They leave because they cannot tolerate life in their places of origin. Rather than scorn these people because they're refugees, or illegal immigrants, the world has a responsibility to fix this growing issue by bringing peace to the places where carnage drives human beings to seek desperate solace. Huge numbers of people around the world are brave enough to take the risk of discrimination, due to a lack of citizenship status, deportation and even, in many cases, undocumented death, for the hope of escaping despair. These tragic stories are about people. These people are refugees, only as a result of despair. Logically, the refugees, many who become illegal immigrants, deserve to be protected. More important, the world is responsible for fixing the problems rather than corralling the people. Nevertheless, many people, those who might help to fix the problems, instead, react like it's the refugees who caused the crises. No! It's war, corruption, greed, political and tribal discrimination that caused this growing problem. Refugees are people who are the victims of the problems.

Italian Rescues in the Mediterranean Sea

Unfortunately, it's been the Italian Coast Guard's role to rescue many of the refugees who are adrift in the Italian Coast Guard is scooping up people who are abandoned at sea, like fish. Tragically, nobody will know how many have drowned. It's totally impossible for Italy to rescue everybody. Hopefully, Italy isn't alone in these rescue efforts, but news reports would lead one to believe there aren't many other nations joining the humanitarian response.The Portland Press Herald reports on the Mediteranian refugee crisisAt least 40 migrants die on smugglers’ ship in Mediterranean. They apparently succumbed to fuel fumes in the hold.

The Italian navy rescues 320 more from the same vessel.

ROME (Italy) — At least 40 migrants died Saturday in the hold of an overcrowded smuggling boat in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, apparently killed by fuel fumes, and some 320 others aboard were saved by the Italian navy, the rescue ship’s commander said.

Migrants by the tens of thousands are braving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean this year, hoping to reach Europe and be granted asylum. They are fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

“The dead were found in the hold,” said Cmdr. Massimo Tozzi, speaking from the navy ship Cigala Fulgosi while the rescue was still ongoing. Asked by RaiNews24 how the migrants died, Tozzi said “it appears to be from inhaling exhaust fumes.”

When rescuers boarded the boat, the bodies of migrants were “lying in water, fuel, human excrement” in the hold, Tozzi said.

Tozzi said the survivors included three children and 45 women, some of whom “were crying for their husbands (and) their children who died in the crossing.”

The navy said that the survivors were later transferred to a Norwegian ship with the Frontex mission, a European effort to save migrant lives in the Mediterranean. The survivors were being brought to a southern Italian port.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, migrants on a Turkish beach scuffled over places on one inflatable dinghy and frantically bailed out another to keep it from sinking during a dramatic night that highlighted their desperation to reach the Greek island of Kos – and the safety of Europe.

The scenes, captured early Saturday by Associated Press journalists on a moonless night, came as Turkish authorities reported that 2,791 migrants have been caught in the Aegean Sea in the past five days alone, most of them Syrians.

Kos is only 2.5 miles from Turkey, at its closest point, its twinkling lights an irresistible beacon to those fleeing war or poverty.

An Italian navy admiral coordinating the sea rescue missions said the first rescuers, in two rubber dinghies, approached the boat carefully, since often migrants rush to one side of their vessel when they spy help and the boat capsizes.

At least seven of the bodies had been transferred to the rescue vessel, which was headed toward Sicily, Ribuffo said.

An estimated 2,300 migrants have died at sea this year trying to make the crossing, according to figures released Friday by the International Organization for Migration.

Most migrants crossing the Mediterranean to southern Europe take one of two routes: From Turkey into Greece, or from North African countries, mainly Libya, to Italy. The Libya-to-Italy route is by far the deadliest. The exact toll of dead will never be known, as some smuggling boats are believed to have gone down at sea without rescuers being aware of them.

The migrants “put their lives in the hands of the smugglers” in order to escape from their dire conditions, said a U.N. refugee agency official, Barbara Molinario.

These humanitarian reports are so numerous, the international media has literally become immune to the impact of the terrible stories. Yet, it's not the media that caused these migrants to risk death to find a better life. Rather, the world's incapacity to respond has caused the tragedies to accumulate, to the point where people are, sadly, becoming as expendable as lemmings.

Of course, there are many who want to, somehow, wave a political wand and turn these refugees back to their places of origin. It doesn't matter what these anti-refugee people think. These desperate people are now among us. Therefore, we have a responsibility to become citizens of the world who take them in.